Today’s Gospel on the Beatitudes can make a person’s head spin. Jesus’ words of how “Blessed are you who are poor,” “Blessed are you who are hated,” and His other, blessed to us when we are hungry or weeping, do not sit easily with us. We wonder if Jesus is in His right mind when He says these things! Who wants to be poor; who wants to be hated, or hungry or weeping? It doesn’t feel natural. To help us make some sense of Jesus’ words, I will borrow this teaching from Bishop Barron. He teaches us that the Greek word for blessed is “Macarius.” Macarius can also be translated as “lucky.” So, Jesus is most likely saying to us “How lucky you are when you are poor!” Isn’t that the truth. Jesus is not only referring to material poverty, but emotional and spiritual poverty as well. For when we feel “poor”, we also feel not listened to, not feel important to others, not have the material possessions that others have. Let’s face it, when we can feel poor in this sense of being lucky, isn’t it because we have compassion and understanding for others who are poor? A great example of this is the generosity of people who are economically poor. The reality is that they are more generous than those who are well off. Or let’s take Jesus’ saying, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you.” Isn’t He saying here also how “lucky” you are when people hate you? In other words, are we not lucky when we do not try to be people-pleasers? People-pleasers always want to go along with anything someone else says or does: even if it’s bad, just to get along with them. We see this in the world of politics all the time, do we not? In fact, we have created an expression to describe such people: “He is being politically correct.” What is important to these people is getting along with people, kissing up to someone, rather than stating the truth. So, my brothers and sisters, we can see why it is so difficult to be a follower of Jesus. To live the Beatitudes everyday requires grace from God and courage within us. With Lent approaching, living the Beatitudes is a most worthy goal.                                         ~ Fr. John

Parish Office

14 Elm Street
Manchester, NH 03103
Phone: (603) 622-5445

Visitors
6385920